Here we go: a full decade after Disney’s PT Barnum musical biopic The Greatest Showman became an unexpectely massive global smash in its original, Hugh Jackman-starring film incarnation, the stage musical is finally with us.
The fact it wasn’t one already is perhaps slightly surprising: it’s rare a musical starts its life on screen these days, and during the ten years it’s taken to rework Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s songs for the stage there has been a resurgence for the 1980 musical Barnum – also about the 19th century circus impressario’s colourful life – and long-running success for Come Alive!, a circus show set to the songs of The Greatest Showman (which will seemingly run in tandem with the new musical).
In 2027 the real deal finally comes to London, as following a 2026 tryout in Bristol, London gets The Greatest Showman before Broadway. It remains an essentially US production, mind: Amercian songswriters Pasek and Pail are back with their hugely popular old songs plus some brand new ones; book writer Tim Federle is American; director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw is American.
The cast are Brits, though, or at least European, as Oliver Tompsett reprises his Bristol role as PT Barnum and Samantha Barks his wife Charity Barnum, alongside Ben Joyce as Phillip Carlyle, Vajèn van den Bosch as Jenny Lind and Malinda Parris as Lettie Lutz. It would also seem to feature acrobats – precisely how circussy it is exactly we’ll find out in spring 2027.
Tickets will go on sale at noon on November 18 2026.
